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I quite enjoyed this book, with its humor, adventure, and slight romance, and would definitely recommend it. The characters were all quite likable, and the notion of time travel simply added to the fun. I would not, however, recommend reading this while tired, as it detracts from being able to follow the plot.

Picked this out because the reviews are good, and the author Connie willis has won Hugo and Nebula awards. Unfortunately, this is a silly book and a bit of a mess. When the lead character Ned travels back in time to Victorian England and is befriended by a young man who is a fool, ie think Bertie Wooster without Jeeves. The story then becomes increasingly pseudo PG Wodehouse, as Ned travels to a country home and becomes involved in silly events such involving a dog, a cat, a pet fish etc. PG Wodehouse stories about Totleigh Towers are much funnier than this book, and Connie Willis should be done for plagiarism.

Have you ever fallen in love with a book slowly? You might read the first 50 pages and think, "This is amusing, but I have no idea what is happening", and yet by the end you are laughing out loud on every page and wishing that every book were like this one. Well, that was me, reading this book, because it's brilliant. The biggest struggle for me, as an insanely fast reader, was to be patient and just slow down, because this isn't a book you can race through -- for one thing, you'll get hopelessly confused with all the time travel stuff (which, honestly, I was still somewhat confused by even at the end) and, more importantly, this book has a very high joke density, and you'll miss a lot of the humor if you try to speed through it. I don't know how to describe this novel other than to say it's a time travel romantic comedy (emphasis on the comedy) -- at times it has the feeling of a Wodehouse-esque farce, but Willis manages to keep it light and funny while still getting the reader deeply invested in Ned and Verity and their relationship. This is so many of my favorite things bundled into 500 pages and it felt like a gift to me, the whole time I was reading it.

Connie Willis is a master storyteller. Doomsday was awesome and now this second installment of the Oxford Time Travel series is so incredibly different from it's predecessor but just as great. This Victorian farce is hilarious and the quirky characters and over all premise, despite being quite predictable at time, is a joy.

Readers who enjoy a retake on a classic, and love humour and imaginative settings will likely enjoy this novel. Inspired by Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, Willis takes our time-travelling characters on a wild ride from the future, back into the Victorian Age, on a search for a rare object, the Bishop's Bird Stump.

A delight from start to finish, I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed a time travel novel more. With fantastic comedic moments, excellent historical descriptions of both England during the Blitz and the Victorian era, and a complex mystery that sits at the core of the novel, the novel never lulls. While loosely connected to Willis' previous novel, Doomsday, it isn't necessary to read the first to truly enjoy this novel and those who have are in for a surprise at the massive shift in tone. If you like time travel stories or even if you just want a good historical read, this book shouldn't be missed.

Thoroughly enjoyable time-travel novel, witty, at times hilarious, incredibly well-researched, believable, well-written. The ending was a trifle predictable in Victorian fashion, but I think that it was fitting, given the subject matter.

Short summary: lots of people are travelling in time to help an eccentric and powerful rich lady restore Coventry Cathedral to the state it was in before the Second World War, romance follows, as do silly and laugh-provoking coincidences.

This book seems to move very slowly in the beginning, but after the first fifty pages, I couldn't put it down. It is a very interesting idea, and is a good science fiction that will leave you wondering about its implications in the real world.

Summary

One of the most pleasantly surprising reads I've ever come across. Don't be put off by the Sci Fi designations. This is a fun, suspenseful book with something that few books ever seem to have...a terrific ending.